Characteristics of individual match observations categorised depending on short-term match congestion, and subgrouped based on the duration of the previous match exposure
| Short-term match congestion (number of days between match exposures) | |||||
| ≤3 days | 4 days | 5 days | 6 days | 7–10 days | |
| Observations, n (% of total observations) | 35 063 (26%) | 33 414 (25%) | 12 502 (9%) | 13 911 (10%) | 38 280 (29%) |
| Total match exposure, hours | 43 529 | 41 633 | 15 753 | 17 685 | 47 833 |
| Mean match exposure time/observation, minutes (SD) | 74.5 (26.8) | 74.8 (26.7) | 75.6 (25.5) | 76.3 (25.5) | 75.0 (26.5) |
| Mean long-term match congestion*, hours (SD) | 6.7 (2.6) | 6.5 (2.5) | 6.3 (2.4) | 5.7 (2.3) | 5.2 (2.2) |
| All injuries, n | 1 096 | 1 040 | 383 | 420 | 1 144 |
| Total injury rate/1000 hours (95% CI) | 25.2 (23.7 to 26.7) | 25.0 (23.5 to 26.5) | 24.3 (22.0 to 26.9) | 23.7 (21.6 to 26.1) | 23.9 (22.6 to 25.3) |
| Total injury rate ratio (95% CI) | Reference group | 0.99 (0.91 to 1.08) | 0.97 (0.86 to 1.08) | 0.94 (0.84 to 1.06) | 0.95 (0.87 to 1.03) |
| Muscle injuries, n (% of all injuries) | 435 (40%) | 441 (42%) | 157 (41%) | 139 (33%) | 389 (34%) |
| Muscle injury rate/1000 hours (95% CI) | 10.0 (9.1 to 11.0) | 10.6 (9.6 to 11.6) | 10.0 (8.5 to 11.7) | 7.9 (6.7 to 9.3) | 8.1 (7.4 to 9.0) |
| Muscle injury rate ratio (95% CI) | Reference group | 1.06 (0.93 to 1.21) | 1.00 (0.83 to 1.20) | 0.79 (0.65 to 0.95) | 0.81 (0.71 to 0.93) |
| ≥90 min exposure in previous match | |||||
| Total match exposure, hours | 29 134 | 28 498 | 10 943 | 12 578 | 33 422 |
| All injuries, n | 721 | 683 | 277 | 289 | 760 |
| Total injury rate/1000 hours (95% CI) | 24.7 (23.0 to 26.6) | 24.0 (22.2 to 25.8) | 25.3 (22.5 to 28.5) | 23.0 (20.5 to 25.8) | 22.7 (21.2 to 24.4) |
| Total injury rate ratio (95% CI) | Reference group | 0.97 (0.87 to 1.08) | 1.02 (0.89 to 1.17) | 0.93 (0.81 to 1.06) | 0.92 (0.83 to 1.02) |
| Muscle injuries, n (% of all injuries) | 283 (39%) | 303 (44%) | 125 (45%) | 95 (33%) | 266 (35%) |
| Muscle injury rate/1000 hours (95% CI) | 9.7 (8.6 to 10.9) | 10.6 (9.5 to 11.9) | 11.4 (9.6 to 13.6) | 7.6 (6.2 to 9.2) | 8.0 (7.1 to 9.0) |
| Muscle injury rate ratio (95% CI) | Reference group | 1.09 (0.93 to 1.29) | 1.18 (0.95 to 1.45) | 0.78 (0.62 to 0.98) | 0.82 (0.69 to 0.97) |
| <90 min exposure in previous match | |||||
| Total match exposure, hours | 14 395 | 13 135 | 4 810 | 5 107 | 14 411 |
| All injuries, n | 375 | 357 | 106 | 131 | 384 |
| Total injury rate/1000 hours (95% CI) | 26.1 (23.5 to 28.8) | 27.2 (24.5 to 30.1) | 22.0 (18.2 to 26.7) | 25.6 (21.6 to 30.4) | 26.6 (24.1 to 29.5) |
| Total injury rate ratio (95% CI) | Reference group | 1.04 (0.90 to 1.21) | 0.85 (0.68 to 1.05) | 0.98 (0.81 to 1.20) | 1.02 (0.89 to 1.18) |
| Muscle injuries, n (% of all injuries) | 152 (41%) | 138 (39%) | 32 (30%) | 44 (34%) | 123 (32%) |
| Muscle injury rate/1000 hours (95% CI) | 10.6 (9.0 to 12.4) | 10.5 (8.9 to 12.4) | 6.7 (4.7 to 9.4) | 8.6 (6.4 to 11.6) | 8.5 (7.2 to 10.2) |
| Muscle injury rate ratio (95% CI) | Reference group | 0.99 (0.79 to 1.25) | 0.63 (0.43 to 0.92) | 0.82 (0.58 to 1.14) | 0.81 (0.64 to 1.03) |
Injury rate ratios were analysed between short-term match congestion groups using ≤3 days as reference.
Values in bold indicate significant difference compared with ≤3 days.
*Long-term match congestion denotes total registered match exposure for the individual during the 30 days prior to an observation.